INDIANA POLICE OFFICER RECOVERING AFTER BEING HIT BY DRUNK DRIVER

A St. Joseph County police officer was hit by a pick-up truck in Osceola Wednesday night while assisting with an accident. Police suspect the man who hit him was driving drunk. The county officer involved is 34-year-old Cpl. Shawn Albright, a 10 year veteran of the force.

The accident happened at the intersection of Lincoln Way East and Chestnut Street, just west of Ferriette Baugo Creek County Park. The first crash happened about 10:30 Wednesday night. Police say a car and a truck collided in the intersection. St. Joseph County officers assisted Osceola police at the scene. Cpl. Albright was blocking the eastbound lanes on Lincoln Way East. About an hour after the first crash, a pickup truck smashed into the passenger side of his squad car.

"We heard a loud crash and looked up," remembered Osceola Fire Chief Les Cornelson. "That's when we realized the officer had been struck."

Cornelson said the injured officer kept saying he was OK, before he lost consciousness. Albright later regained consciousness on the way to Memorial Hospital in South Bend.

Officers and firefighters say they often work closely together, and it's a hard hit when one of their own gets hurt. "For me personally when I got the call and learned that one of our officers was struck, it's certainly a scary feeling," said St. Joseph County Police Sgt. Bill Redman."Obviously it's the worst nightmare," added Chief Cornelson. "We're trained to react and act very professionally. We wait until it's all over to let the emotions come."

Cpl. Albright was released from Memorial just before 6 a.m. Thursday, with a concussion and a broken nose. He told WSBT he has scrapes and bruises on his arms, and the rest of his body is very sore. Albright said he remembers seeing the pickup truck coming toward his squad car, but does not remember anything after that.

Police say the driver of the truck, 50-year-old Edgar Wolfe, Jr., was also taken to Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He was released a short time later and taken into custody at the St. Joseph County Jail. Police booked Wolfe on preliminary charges of Operating While Intoxicated - Causing Serious Bodily Injury. Wolfe's preliminary blood alcohol was 0.25, according to investigators. That's more than three times Indiana's legal driving limit of 0.08.